The only consistent thing in the movies of 2014 was the lack of a constant.
For every outer-space comedy reinventing the superhero genre there was a demigod having a bad hair-and-beard day in an unintentionally silly action flick.

A Million Ways to Die in the West
Rating: 2½ stars out of 5
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson
Directed by: Seth MacFarlane
Running time: 116 minutes
Anyone wanting to understand modern American humour might study the evolution of the fart joke from Blazing Saddles (1974) to A Million Ways to Die in the West, a compendium of crude humour, penis references, non-sequiturs and flatulence.

Evolution, the big bang theory, the origins of time and space and less-than-stellar ratings. Three weeks in, the stardust is starting to settle on Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane’s reimagination of Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking 1980 science series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

Neil deGrasse Tyson tells the story of how, as a young, starry-eyed would-be astronomer from the Bronx, New York, the late, astrophysicist, cosmologist and science communicator Carl Sagan invited him to his home in Upstate New York, to talk science.

Chris Lackner
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang, but these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need.

In the sun-dappled streets of a small seaside town, Andie MacDowell pedals a retro-styled bicycle. She’s wearing a pastel sweater and air-blown scarf, and her hair is casually done up like that of someone who deserves the L’Oréal contract she’s had for 28 years.